A female elephant was electrocuted near Bakharatola village under the Banki Forest Range in Sundargarh district on Sunday night.
The pachyderm came in contact with a live electric wire at a farmland and died on the spot. Farmers of the locality had fenced their agricultural lands with charged wires to keep elephants away as the jumbos were damaging crops during the last few days.
Being informed about the elephant’s death, Forest Department officials reached the spot. Till last reports came in, efforts were on to ward off other elephants which were guarding their herd member’s carcass.